“Writing is the best kind of networking. By making it easy for people to find you online, you’ll create a vehicle for serendipity. Call on your vehicle when you want to manufacture serendipity, and you need some activation energy.”
“We asked you what books inspired you this year. We took your answers and turned then into this list. We hope it proves useful. Onward.”
“We are engaged in a feedback loop with anxiety. Fearing it, and in response, trying to avoid it or push it down, is part of what can make it such a problem for us. It feels like an obstacle because we have been treating it as such.”
“The abundance of information out there can make it tempting to read about the actual thing you want to do next, be it coding, blogging, creating music, or starting a business. Look deep inside: what’s preventing you from starting your project?”
“It takes in average 64 seconds for an individual to return to its work after an email interruption. Considering that an average worker checks its email 15 times a day, that’s already a quarter of an hour gone daily.”
“Anything that doesn’t stand out will eventually become irrelevant, commoditized and ignored. There will always be a faster, better, or cheaper option for everything.”
“Consider every project you’re left with after you’ve stripped the nonessentials, and then weigh their value based on their potential for achieving your larger goals. This shift will force you to get comfortable with the fact that you’ll have to say ‘no’ to a few great opportunities.”
“Email is the only universal platform. We think about Facebook being huge, but it’s the one platform that has more users than Facebook, Twitter, or any of these things. Every single person has an email address.”
“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” — Benjamin Franklin
It’s easier to come up with excuses not to do things than it is to summon the courage to try.
But Annie Franceschi’s book Permission To Try: 11 Things You Need to Hear When You’re Scared To Change Your Life can help you overcome those excuses.
Following is my interview with Annie — who runs the small business branding agency Greatest Story Creative and is a For The Interested newsletter subscriber — about what it takes to give yourself permission to try and what happens when you do.